Alec Stewart: New county cricket season promises high quality

I'm looking forward to the county season starting on Wednesday and I'm expecting some exciting, high-quality cricket to be played throughout the summer.

County cricket is vitally important because it is the feeder to the England team. The competition is strong and competitive, meaning the national side reaps the benefits.

Geoff Miller and the other England selectors spend many hours watching county cricket, which allows them to assess a player's ability, technique, character and personality before selecting them for the next step up.

Nick Compton and Joe Root are fine examples of players who have graduated to the England team over the winter and their selections should motivate every county player with ambitions to play for their country.

Root, who is 22, has been earmarked as a player of great potential for a couple of years now and is developing very nicely. However, if you just looked at his statistics he didn't stand out as an automatic pick - yet the England selectors had seen something special in him while playing for Yorkshire and when he was with the various ECB performance squads.

Compton is at the other end of the scale - he is now 29 and had been playing county cricket for a number of years before eventually earning his Test selection through sheer weight of runs for Somerset.

To mark the first day of the new season, I'm going to look at some teams to watch in the County Championship and discuss some of the domestic game's star performers.

Who will win the ultimate prize?

Division One of the County Championship is always keenly contested and I expect it to be no different this summer.

I'm obviously hoping
Surrey
will win the Championship for the first time since 2002 but there will be plenty of challengers for the title.

Stewart on Finn

"Congratulations to Steven Finn for winning England's FTI Most Valuable Player after taking 37 wickets in all formats against India, New Zealand and during the World Twenty20.

"However, while I fully agree he should be very happy with his progress, I was also delighted to hear him say he still has room to improve.

"He has the ability to be one of England's finest ever bowlers so I am pleased to see he has that desire to be the very best he can possibly be. He is certainly not shy of hard work and in Angus Fraser at Middlesex he has a fine role model."

I'm also interested to see how
Middlesex
fare.
They have signed James Harris from Glamorgan,
an exciting young bowler on the fringes of the England squad, and they also have Toby Roland-Jones who took more than 60 wickets last season.

My only concern is whether they are capable of scoring enough runs. They tend to rely heavily on their overseas player, Chris Rogers,
and there have already been whispers
that he might be called up for Australia's Ashes squad. How would they cope if that happened?

Under Mick Newell,
Nottinghamshire
have built a very strong squad. They will lose Graeme Swann and Stuart Broad to England duties, but they will still be able to field quality players like Michael Lumb, Alex Hales, James Taylor and Samit Patel for most of the season.

Pitches at Trent Bridge tend to produce results too, meaning Notts are likely to be pushing to win the County Championship at the end of the summer.

Sussex
and
Durham
will again be keen to show the top division exactly what they are capable of and both counties will believe they have a more than decent chance of success. They both know what it takes to win the Championship and that experience can count for a lot.

Derbyshire
and
Yorkshire
are the new boys having been promoted and they will look to establish themselves, knowing that four or five wins will secure their status and, if achieved early enough, they can then begin to think about the top end of the table.

Promotion contenders

Division Two of the County Championship is always difficult to assess because it usually goes down to the wire.

BBC radio coverage

"It's fantastic news that the BBC Sport website will be broadcasting live radio commentary of every single county match this summer.

"Many newspapers are cutting down on their coverage of county cricket and, with the Ashes series and the British Lions rugby tour of Australia dominating sport this summer, there is a danger that county cricket could lose much-needed exposure.

"But this is great for the game and allows supporters to follow their team's progress more closely."

In the first half of the season, some teams play quite cagey cricket to ensure they have stayed in with a chance of promotion come the end of the summer - when teams are more prepared to take a risk in pursuit of victories.

He could come into the team and win matches almost single-handedly when the pitches should be at their driest later in the summer.

There are a number of clubs who are struggling financially and many of those are bringing through their own players rather than making new signings.

While you also need experience to help nurture that talent, I am pleased to see counties like
Essex
and
Kent
trying to build competitive teams with some very promising young players who have been developed through their youth and academy system.

The star men

Graeme Smith (Surrey) -
To have the captain of the number one Test side in the world playing county cricket for the next three years can only be good news for Surrey and the county game.

Graeme Smith's Test record

Age:
32

Tests:
110

Runs:
8,753 (average: 48.62)

Hundreds:
26

Fifties:
37

High score:
277

Smith is a huge signing for my county, and the perfect person to lead the team both on and off the field after what has been a very difficult 12 months.

It's a huge boost to our domestic game to see a world-class player like Smith playing county cricket. He will be able to pass on his vast knowledge and experience and players both young and old can learn so much from him.

In years gone by, the very best players in the world - Malcolm Marshall, Michael Holding, Viv Richards, Wasim Akram and the like - would come over here during the summer and add so much to the overall quality of the competition, but with today's busy international itinerary the availability of world-class players is limited.

I'm sure Smith will stamp his class on county cricket and, with my Surrey cap on, I hope he leads the club to plenty of success.

Glen Chapple (Lancashire) -
Chappie is 39 now but his hunger and desire remain as strong as ever.

If I had to pick five players during my time who were unlucky not to have played Test cricket for England, he would certainly be one of them.

Chappie is a skilful bowler who has taken almost 900 first-class wickets, and he'll be desperate to help Lancashire get back into the top division of the Championship this summer.

Comments

Smoking what... Smith is past his best, yes or no? Think Sussex will have a good year and Durham another shocker. Smith will have a great influence on the county but that will take time. The 3 picks are hardly insightful- just consistent performers which we can all see

At #1: What are you smoking mate? Being a football fan as well myself, I can see how you might make the mistake that players in their 30's are past it, but this is cricket. Most of the top players in world cricket are in their 30's. Kallis, Clark, Kumar etc. This really is the sport where players mature like fine wines...

Now that all matches are on I hope the BBC make some attempt to shake things up and move the commentators around a bit to give us a more objective view of the season. As Alec Stewart proves most cricket people are just a teeny bit biased and one eyed when it comes to their team. Fine bringing in a coach, injured or ex players to summarise but the commentary needs to be more impartial.

The decision to broadcast live commentary from County matches is the most exciting aspect of this summer. As a child (I am 38 now) I used to follow Warwickshire & Worcestershire avidly. There is less interest in the county format now amongst kids. T20 may be to blame but perhaps we need free tickets for school kids to get them interested?

So Alec doesn't pick Somerset, one of the most consistent county teams of recent years in all forms of cricket. I'm hoping the likely loss of Compton doesn't prevent another serious assault on a first title. As in his comments when Surrey first signed Smith, Alec seems unaware that he's played in the championship before, at the height of his powers, for Somerset. Does he have a blind spot?

I think Smith's signing for Surrey is huge for the game in England, sorry #7 cannot agree with you on this one! You just do NOT buy experience on the shelf at your local store, you get it from playing the game week in week out at the highest level and Smith in particular is a good signing for all the younger players, I am sure he is going to pass on valuable experience to them!

IPL is probably THE showcase for 20/20, but I think most people in the know would agree that county is the premier "more day" competition in the world. Sort of an IPL for "more day" cricket. Being a bit of a purist IPL or 20/20 is MacDs compared to county/ test cricket being steak and veg. I suppose it's yours to pick but genuine cricketers, imo, pick steak and veg!

@4 agreed- There is the fundamental difference between county cricket and IPL. County fans go to watch their team, and support their club. The players are not the attraction. In India, celebrity sports culture is very different, the 'top' players just need to turn up to draw a crowd, it doesnt matter who theyre plaing for. A plastic IPL like comp wouldnt work in England- we want a team to support

@4That may well be the case but I was pointing out that watching a young quickie like Matt Coles should be more exciting than a 39 year old chugging in.Of course in the IPL's case many of the 'star attractions' are in the 40's !

As a South African I have rarely followed county cricket, mostly scores and tables. Smith has a buzz about him without being self centred. He has done the hard yards and has really ground out a great career with sheer tenacity. I think tenacity compensates for a terrible technique:)

Hopefully Hampshire are able to push for promotion this year. I agree that Ajmal is a shrewd signing, Hampshire are clever in targeting world class spinners as overseas signings (Tahir, Warne) to back up their steady, proven pace attack (the likes of Tomlinson). Make or break season for Liam Dawson, future for England?

The three 'star men' have an aggregate age of 108 and the best years of their cricketing life well behind them, If county cricket is all about watching big names then it will always lose out to comps like IPL.There's are plenty of exciting young players around that will develop into top players...

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